Food grain procurement and food security
Saturday, 29 November 2008
The aman rice procurement from the farmers by the government was launched from Tuesday. The target of this drive is to procure some 0.15 million tonnes of aman rice and 75 thousand tonnes of aman paddy from the farmers. The aman harvest is not the biggest rice crop of the year. It is secondary to the Boro harvest from which the government some months ago targeted the procurement of some 1.2 million tonnes of rice. But only a little over 0.6 million tonnes of the Boro rice could be actually procured. A large quantity of rice was imported from India and other countries. Some 1.2 million tonnes of food grains are now in the government's silos and if the aman rice procurement is fully met, the stock would rise further.
But given the experience of recent years, the meeting in full of the aman rice procurement target remains in doubt. Only about half of the Boro rice procurement was met in the last season although the crop yields at that time were the highest ever recorded in the country. With this experience in view, there is no reason to be very confident, thus, that the aman rice procurement target would be met. Under the current aman rice procurement programme, Taka 16 has been fixed for the purchase of one kg of paddy and Taka 26 for one kg of rice from the farmers. Government considers the prices on offer as reasonable that would leave the farmers with enough incentives to come forward and sell their produce at procurement centres that have been set up in each upazila.
But observers of procurement activities do not think on the same line. They are of the view that procurement prices can be still increased upward in a bid to motivate the farmers -- better -- to sell to the government. As it is, the open market prices of food grains are notably higher than those in the procurement centres. According to such views, the upward readjustment of procurement prices could lead to substantially higher procurement of the boro rice. Apart from increased procurement prices, the demands are also there for better supervision of activities at the procurement centres. The employees in some centres are allegedly found to be reluctant to buy from farmers if they fail to grease their palms. Thus, there is need to respond to these allegations of corruption seriously. Such responses will also play a part in realising the procurement targets.
Government has set a target of food grain sale and distribution to vulnerable groups at 2.4 million tonnes in the current fiscal year. But against this provisioning, the available stocks with the government are nearly half the amount. Major addition to the stocks are unlikely until the arrival of the next Boro crop. Thus, although the food stocks with the government are otherwise comfortable, the same do need to be strengthened further in order to ensure national food security for meeting any unforeseen circumstances. Also, the building up of storage capacity in the public sector is another issue that merits consideration.
On its part, government has done well in spurring on or helping the production of higher rice output in the last two seasons. But favourable climate and a sense of urgency among the farmers, especially the subsistence ones, mainly helped the record bumper harvests. Any downturn in climatic patterns or the occurrence of natural calamities, could once again threaten the economy with the need to go for large imports that would stress the country's balance of payments position and create other macro-economic problems. Thus, it is so very important to go on streamlining the official programmes on a sustainable basis to keep the farmers motivated to go on producing increasingly on the higher side and to mop up the surplus produce from them as far as possible, keeping the resource availability situation into consideration. Building appropriate food stocks can hedge against any situation, particularly in the context of needs for ensuring food security. This security is central to planning in the backdrop of recent experiences.
But given the experience of recent years, the meeting in full of the aman rice procurement target remains in doubt. Only about half of the Boro rice procurement was met in the last season although the crop yields at that time were the highest ever recorded in the country. With this experience in view, there is no reason to be very confident, thus, that the aman rice procurement target would be met. Under the current aman rice procurement programme, Taka 16 has been fixed for the purchase of one kg of paddy and Taka 26 for one kg of rice from the farmers. Government considers the prices on offer as reasonable that would leave the farmers with enough incentives to come forward and sell their produce at procurement centres that have been set up in each upazila.
But observers of procurement activities do not think on the same line. They are of the view that procurement prices can be still increased upward in a bid to motivate the farmers -- better -- to sell to the government. As it is, the open market prices of food grains are notably higher than those in the procurement centres. According to such views, the upward readjustment of procurement prices could lead to substantially higher procurement of the boro rice. Apart from increased procurement prices, the demands are also there for better supervision of activities at the procurement centres. The employees in some centres are allegedly found to be reluctant to buy from farmers if they fail to grease their palms. Thus, there is need to respond to these allegations of corruption seriously. Such responses will also play a part in realising the procurement targets.
Government has set a target of food grain sale and distribution to vulnerable groups at 2.4 million tonnes in the current fiscal year. But against this provisioning, the available stocks with the government are nearly half the amount. Major addition to the stocks are unlikely until the arrival of the next Boro crop. Thus, although the food stocks with the government are otherwise comfortable, the same do need to be strengthened further in order to ensure national food security for meeting any unforeseen circumstances. Also, the building up of storage capacity in the public sector is another issue that merits consideration.
On its part, government has done well in spurring on or helping the production of higher rice output in the last two seasons. But favourable climate and a sense of urgency among the farmers, especially the subsistence ones, mainly helped the record bumper harvests. Any downturn in climatic patterns or the occurrence of natural calamities, could once again threaten the economy with the need to go for large imports that would stress the country's balance of payments position and create other macro-economic problems. Thus, it is so very important to go on streamlining the official programmes on a sustainable basis to keep the farmers motivated to go on producing increasingly on the higher side and to mop up the surplus produce from them as far as possible, keeping the resource availability situation into consideration. Building appropriate food stocks can hedge against any situation, particularly in the context of needs for ensuring food security. This security is central to planning in the backdrop of recent experiences.